Springtime Cultural Servings pt.1

all in each - Spazio Leone 

For New Zealand-born artist and designer, Grace Atkinson, textiles work as a malleable medium, one that maintains its softness while bearing the weight of intention. Showing at Spazio Leone, ‘all in each’ is a solo exhibition bringing together new and existing pieces, emboldening the opportunity for dynamic exchange to arise, one that fosters a narrative across time and creative motivations. Pinching its title from a text by psychologist, R.D. Laing, ‘all in each’ also seeks to examine the universal entanglements of human relationships that were the subject of Laing’s original work. Handwoven and handbrushed blankets are alluringly fuzzy, and Atkinson debuts a modular chair in a vibrant red, bringing together a sense of play with architectural form. Geometric motifs are spliced and splashed across blankets and rugs, crafted with striking hues; the mix of bright and deep shades offers varying depth to each piece, adding another dimension to Atkinson’s meticulously woven creations. Open until 18th May, ‘all in each’ is open at Spazio Leone. 

Horseplay - 8 Holland Street 

There’s something totally intuitive about Alex Heim’s latest works in his new exhibition, ‘Horseplay’. As the exhibition’s name will have you believe, there is most certainly a sense of play abundant throughout Heim’s paintings. Form is tussled with, and so too are his reflections on growing up in the British countryside. This idea of attempting to wrangle with one’s own boyhood takes shape across this boisterous anthology of work. Heim’s refusal to subject his memories to the conventions of linearity allows us to be taken on a dizzying trip down memory lane. Heim stakes a claim on naivety. Instead of casting it off as a dirty little word more akin to ignorance, instead he finds freedom with the juvenile spaces of naivety and informs both himself and his paintings with this capacity for youthful release. A standout painting from the exhibition is ‘Boy in Ladies Clothes’, unabashedly candid and composed with a boyish wisdom, this piece embodies the motivations behind ‘Horseplay’, a child-like study on the intricacies of the human experience. Open until 7th June, ‘Horseplay’ is showing at 8 Holland Street.

from pop songs to pig breeding - Ginny on Frederick 

‘from pop songs to pig breeding’ abruptly prompts a reflexive attempt at association between both ‘pop songs’ and ‘pig breeding’. The title of Mitchell Kehe’s exhibition at Ginny on Frederick represents a disruption to our innate search for harmony and is an apt introduction to Kehe’s motivation for the show. The idea that things naturally at odds with each other may still harmonise, simply at a different frequency, is a disarming truth and yet Kehe visualises this internal disorder in curious ways. Clarity is generally disregarded, and intuition proves to be a protagonist amongst the works displayed. Paintings composed of metallic enamel paints, acrylic and oil yield a lingering observation, prompting the viewer to spend time with the unnamed works they’re looking at. While the show’s pieces are new, some of the collaged elements are taken from previously discarded works, highlighting the artist’s refusal to start totally anew, in embodying the mosaical experience of memory, motivation and what it means to create. Showing until 23rd May, ‘from pop songs to pig breeding’ is open to view at Ginny on Frederick. 

Duets - Teaspoon Projects 

A ball of yarn, a pot of bleach, for Maya Gurung-Russell Campbell and Dwayne Coleman, material mediums doubly figure as personal allegories. In a new, joint exhibition, ‘Duets’, presented by Teaspoon Projects, memory and histories, both personal and shared, inform the works displayed in a show that wrangles with quiet intimacy and generational reckoning. While maintaining the spirit of their individual practices, Gurung-Russell Campbell and Coleman engender a cohesion, the show’s title is effectively tended to by pieces that come together to form part of a larger narrative. How long is a piece of string? Which end is the top? Which end is the bottom? Gurung-Russell Campbell’s threads of migration and identity are tangled; she can’t answer those questions either, and yet her work exists within the gaps, rejecting linearity in favour of her lived experience. Sculptural installations of knotted flags and rope grow as emblems of her relationship to this metaphorical tangle of threads. For Campbell, the process is somewhat more alchemical. Bleach, dye, rust; colour holds emotion, and his very meticulous image making is both poetic and laborious. His patchwork canvases mirror the fragmented nature of memory and layers figure as tectonic plates of Campbell’s own world. Open between 15-24th May, ‘Duets’ is showing at 65a Charlotte Street, London. 

Scatter Symphony - Neven 

As a visual genre, still-life is pretty well defined, and one can conjure imaginings of bowls of waxen fruit or tablescapes laid with freshly plucked game and candlesticks. While Isabella Benshimol Toro’s exhibition doesn't necessarily conform to the ‘typical’ medium associated with still-life, ‘Scatter Symphony’ does embody that sense of time being frozen. A keyhole, crafted to pry into a moment in time, one that is devoid of a human subject and yet is so packed with the human spirit. Showing at Neven, ‘Scatter Symphony’ presents an anthology of wall and floor-based works that seek to calcify the ephemeral and domestic moments of life. Towel radiators are draped with “wet” (resin-coated)  flannels, underwear and garments and are encased in plexiglass boxes. There’s an innate chaos and yet undisputed familiarity with getting undressed, doing laundry and merely showering. Benshimol Toro supplies rhythm to the dizzying human experience with the visual throughline across her pieces. These scenes, so defined by their humble disorder, are merged with Benshimol Toro’s complete composure when it comes to her process and staging, offering a viewing which is both jarring and comforting. Scatter Symphony is open at Neven until 31st May.